William M. Tweed

William Magear "Boss" Tweed (3 April 1823-12 April 1878) was a member of the US House of Representatives (D-NY 5) from 4 March 1853 to 3 March 1855 (succeeding George Briggs and preceding Thomas R. Whitney), Grand Sachem of Tammany Hall from 1858 to 1871 (succeeding Fernando Wood and preceding John Kelly and John Morrissey), and a State Senator from the 4th District from 1 January 1868 to 31 December 1873 (succeeding Briggs and preceeding John Fox).

Biography
William Magear Tweed was born on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, New York City in 1823, the grandson of a Scottish immigrant chair-maker. He worked as a volunteer fireman before being recruited as the Democrats' candidate for Seventh Ward alderman in 1850, when Tweed was just 26; he lost that year's election, but was elected a year later. He went on to serve an undistinguished two-year term in the US House of Representatives from 1853 to 1855, but his friend in the judiciary certified him as an attorney, and he became Grand Sachem of the Tammany Hall political machine in 1858. He created a small executive committee to run the club and presided over one of the most powerful machines in the country, being nicknamed "Boss". He used his law firm to extort money, established two of his companies as the city's official printing and stationery supply companies and used them to overcharge the city government, and he semi-illicitly expanded Tammany's voter base by handing out "Vote Tammany" flyers to newly-arrived Irish immigrants, granting the Irish patronage jobs in exchange for their vote, and registered dead people to vote. From 1868 to 1873, he served in the State Senate, and Tammany took over the state governorship and all fifteen of New York City's aldermanic positions in 1869. Tweed also purchased lands in Yorkville and Harlem, used the city government to develop the areas, and then sold the lands for a high price, enriching himself. By 1871, he was a member of the Board of Directors for the Erie Railroad, the Brooklyn Bridge Company, the Third Avenue Railway Company, and the Harlem Gas Light Company and was President of the Guardian Savings Banks. In 1871, however, his machine began to collapse as it failed to prevent deadly clashes between Irish Protestant Orangists and Irish Catholics during an Ulster unionist parade; the city elite no longer supported Tweed due to his inability to maintain order. The New York Times and Harper's Weekly attacked his corruption in cartoons and stories, and Tweed lost his title of Grand Sachem as Tammany Hall began to collapse due to its labor base demanding payment, the elite withdrawing its support, and Samuel J. Tilden becoming the city's leading Democrat. In 1877, he was convicted of embezzling up to $200 million, and, after a failed escape attempt, he died in the Ludlow Street Jail in 1878.